Saturday, August 3, 2019

One Careless Night

Christina Booth
BlackDog Books

This is just wonderful. Hauntingly beautiful and evocative.

It is the story of the LAST thylacine, an apex predator that survived in the darkened Tasmanian bushes until a "Reward for Destruction of Native Tigers" was placed on their heads. This last Thylacine died in captivity one freezing night at Hobart Zoo when a keeper left the animal out of her shelter. But this Thylacine should not have been the last.

Captured from the wild where they hunted for food, a mother Thylacine and her pup are locked away in a forest of concrete and steel, waiting daily for food delivery, until the mother and then later the pup - the last known of its kind - die. That date was 7th September, 1936 - which is now the date of the National Threatened Species day.

The government notice included at the end of the books is telling and along with Christina's stunning but draining digital illustrations and rippling text, this book will force readers of all ages to consider our native wildlife and how they can easily become but a memory. And they may also ask why.







LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...